I have recently gotten hooked on this meme, a song by Czech comedian Ivan Mladek. I loved it so much I have read through the original Czech text and more or less understand the individual sentences. Mind you, I also speak Russian. Yeah, Czech is also a Slavic language, but geez, the syntax is practically the same.
I strongly suspect the same could be said of French and Spanish -- at least, I can tell the adjective goes after the noun. But I've never studied either of those, so I can't say.
Also, having put some effort into studying German -- 3 semesters plus two trips to the country, plus periodic reading/listening online -- I can often understand sentences written in Dutch. The syntax also looks identical.
All that said, transition from German to English or vice versa should be quite a bit harder than transition between Russain and Czech or Spanish and French. That's a guess, I don't know for sure, but check this out:
G: Wie heisst du?
E: What's your name (lit. How <callest-thyself> thee, heissen is a verb which means 'to be called').
G: Ich habe es schon gekauft.
E: I have already bought it.
(lit: I have IT already BOUGHT, except it is an object of bought not have).
G: Ich bin in der Stadt geblieben.
E: I have stayed in the city.
(lit: I am in the City remained.The verb am is always added when talking about position or motion of the subject).
G: four cases, actively used.
E: two cases, almost dead.
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